Saturday, 17 March 2007

SIR - I am writing as a concerned father, whose son is currently serving with the Army and will be deployed to Iraq in November, to voice my concerns over the appalling way our servicemen are treated after being wounded on active service.

SIR - I am writing as a concerned father, whose son is currently serving with the Army and will be deployed to Iraq in November, to voice my concerns over the appalling way our servicemen are treated after being wounded on active service.

In 1992, this government commissioned a report that recommended that all military hospitals be closed down on the understanding that future wounded personnel would be better cared for in an ordinary NHS hospital. That report was made more than 15 years ago, long before the current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan was ever perceived.

With the last of the military hospitals due to be closed later this year, our wounded are now reduced to being treated in an ordinary ward in an ordinary NHS hospital by staff who do not understand and have not been trained in how best to deal with men who have witnessed the day-to-day inhumanity these conflicts bring.

Tony Blair has spoken publicly about his government's promise to leave our service personnel wanting for nothing in their fight against the insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Yet recent stories of a wounded soldier lying for 24 hours in his own excrement and another whose own parents had to change his colostomy bag after repeated requests to get it changed was ignored shows these promises are falling short on delivery.

Service personnel taken from the field of conflict need to be surrounded by people who understand what they have been through, people with whom who they can share their thoughts and experiences, and who will understand those experiences.

Given the current situation, surely it is time for this government to re-think its closure policy and say to the 10,000 military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan that we are proud of what you're doing and if you are wounded rest assured you will be looked after to the best this government can offer, in your own hospitals, surrounded by staff who understand you.

PAUL DAVIES

Park Place, Bargoed

SIR - In my view the public is being misled.

1. Mr Hillier does not mention animal or livestock health. Why? What about the food chain? Cattle have died and had abortions at Brofiscin Farm.They ingested the contaminated pasture and groundwater. PCBs were found in their tissue. Mice fed the same water died or developed tumours in research studies at two different major laboratories that were retained advisers to the UK and US governments.

2. The Environment Agency's own consultants, Atkins, in their report dated December 2005, state the following about Brofiscin Quarry: "Pollution of controlled water is occurring... The waste and ground water have recently been shown to contain significant quantities of poisonous, noxious and polluting material... and additional entry (into the environment) will therefore take place."

3. These chemicals are now reaching a major aquifer.They are not water-soluble but are slow acting, and they concentrate and accumulate in the fatty tissues in the body. I have 600 ng/fat of combined PCBs and dioxins in my own body as a result of my seven years of exposure at Brofiscin, and it is now causing immune system interference.

4. Solutia UK (formerly Monsanto) is indeed a Solutia subsidiary NOT included in the reorganisation filing in the US.The USBC cannot grant the relief that Mr Hillier says he and the EAW have now sought. This is highly embarrassing for the UK. I made the Environment Agency aware of this fact early in 2006. The public purse is now exposed to needless risk.

I am a former trustee at the USBC. I have offered the EAW my advice and help, free of charge, as well as my detailed evidence about what was dumped where in the Brofiscin and Maendy quarries. Mr Hillier has refused that help.I believe very serious questions arise as to what on earth is going on, and as to whether the public interest is in safe hands.

DOUGLAS GOWAN

Norwich

SIR - The Dome is and was a white elephant, yet #60bn - yes 60 billion - is to be spent on weapons of mass destruction aka "Trident", which apparently we can have but nobody else, otherwise we go to war in the name of democracy! Wembley is an over-budget embarrassment and our expansive wars on anyone not to the liking of Mr Bush are costing millions per day.

The London Olympics are now costing us #9bn and apparently Lottery funds meant for good causes will be raided by a further #70m to sustain this initiative. In the name of us all, though, without consent or discussion.

Nevertheless, Labour tells us that all of this is for the good of Wales. We will all benefit. Apparently.

Meanwhile the health service is in meltdown and in Pontardawe you can't get an NHS dentist. Our fire service is threatened with downgrading and our school playing fields look set to be developed for housing - a proposal by the Labour-led local administration.

We pay the highest council tax in Wales yet enjoy among the highest levels of ill-health in the country and we're about to see a cut in council budgets hitting all areas including education and social services.

Is it me or are there double standards?

The prestigious Welsh socialist historian Gwyn Alf Williams once asked, "When was Wales?", I think it's fair to now ask, "Why is Labour?"

CLLR A HUW EVANS

Plaid, High Street, Pontardawe

SIR - Filament light bulbs produce 95% heat and 5% light, and they cost 10 times as much as the new low-energy type of bulb over their lifetime.

Surely we are concerned enough about the state of the planet to make this small change to our lifestyles.

SIR - People who live in Glyncorrwg warmly welcome the reassurances from the leader of the council, Derek Vaughan, that Neath Port Talbot Council strongly opposes the Assembly's TAN 8 policy and will continue to fight the proposals.

The beautiful scenery of our area will be destroyed if the TAN 8 proposals become a reality. We already have 16 industrial turbines at Ffynnon Oer above Abercregan and those should be our area's share of the wind turbines needed for Wales.They are already a blot on the landscape and can be seen as far away as Swansea. How many time have you gone past and seen them standing still?

We support our MP Hywel Francis who is aiming to designate the Upper Afan Valley as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and should therefore be protected from any more industrial turbines being built.

The council should be praised for its work with Warm Wales, which has successfully improved the energy efficiency of hundreds of homes through better insulation, improved gas heating systems and low-energy light bulbs.This is the way forward rather than ruining our beautiful landscape with these ugly, expensive, inefficient, noisy turbines.

SIR - In response to J LLoyd Jones's letter (March 16). Mr Jones, along with many others, have unfortunately become confused over the roles of the Assembly and the Assembly Government.

He refers to the Assembly as a whole, without distinction between the "legislature" and the "executive, as somehow being to blame for Wales' current problems.

This isn't the case. The Labour-controlled Assembly Government is responsible for the stagnant malaise that Wales sits in.

The Assembly itself consists of the representatives that are elected from across Wales, most of whom do not have input to the government system.

What Wales must do to change the current predicament is go the polls in May, cast a vote for Plaid Cymru and thus help change this toothless talking shop into a proper parliament, and evict this tired obsolete Labour Party from office, which has become a costly and incompetent ball and chain upon Wales. Only then can Wales benefit from the opportunities that devolution has offered, and Labour has squandered.

CHAD RICKARD

Cathays Terrace, Cathays, Cardiff

SIR - If there is one good thing to emerge from the decision this week to build new nuclear weapons for the UK, it is that all the talk by Labour and the Tories alike about the environment is revealed as nothing more than empty rhetoric.

They exhort the rest of us to "do our bit" and arrange photo opportunities to show how green they are, but the harsh reality is that they both intend to devote massive resources, and huge quantities of energy, to building nuclear weapons which no sane person would ever consider using.

Let us be absolutely clear. There is nothing remotely environmentally friendly about building a new generation of weapons of mass destruction. This one decision will probably do more damage than any benefits from all of their "environmental" policies.

Any pretence to care about the future of the planet is revealed for what it is - a thin veneer aimed at conning people into voting for parties whose only real interest is political power.

Nobody who cares one iota for the future of mankind can even consider voting for such blatant dishonesty.

JOHN DIXON

National Chair Plaid Cymru, and Assembly candidate, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Llanpumsaint, Caerfyrddin